Thursday, October 21, 2010

Defund NPR

NPR free to fire Juan Williams and the US Gov has no business funding NPR either. The time's long past when there was a public interesting in funding other sources for news. Let's pull the budget from NPR and let them stand on their own. Sarah Palin's got it exactly right.....

At a time when our country is dangerously in debt and looking for areas of federal spending to cut, I think we’ve found a good candidate for defunding. National Public Radio is a public institution that directly or indirectly exists because the taxpayers fund it. And what do we, the taxpayers, get for this? We get to witness Juan Williams being fired from NPR for merely speaking frankly about the very real threat this country faces from radical Islam.

We have to have an honest discussion about the jihadist threat. Are we not allowed to say that Muslim terrorists have killed thousands of Americans and continue to plot the deaths of thousands more? Are we not allowed to say that there are Muslim states that aid and abet these fanatics? Are we not allowed to even debate the role that radical Islam plays in inciting this violence?

I don’t expect Juan Williams to support me (he’s said some tough things about me in the past) – but I will always support his right and the right of all Americans to speak honestly about the threats this country faces. And for Juan, speaking honestly about these issues isn’t just his right, it’s his job. Up until yesterday, he was doing that job at NPR. Firing him is their loss.

If NPR is unable to tolerate an honest debate about an issue as important as Islamic terrorism, then it’s time for “National Public Radio” to become “National Private Radio.” It’s time for Congress to defund this organization.

NPR says its mission is “to create a more informed public,” but by stifling debate on these issues, NPR is doing exactly the opposite. President Obama should make clear his commitment to free and honest discussion of the jihadist threat in our public debates – and Congress should make clear that unless NPR provides that public service, not one more dime.

4 comments:

Yes, we should have an honest discussion about the threat of terrorism by Islamic extremists and other religious extremists (including our own home-grown religious extremists in the US who commit terrorist acts).

And we should also have a discussion about the costs and benefits of religious expression in our society.

But sartorial choices have nothing to do with terrorism. You know that. Juan Williams knows that. We all know that.

The most-recent terrorist acts successfully committed by Islamic extremists were done wearing casual menswear (9/11 hijackings) or Army uniforms (Ft. Hood shooting). No successful Islamic terrorist in the US has shown up at the airport wearing exotic "Muslim garb."

So ... yes, let's have that serious discussion about terrorism committed by Islamic extremists.

But don't commit the logical fallacy of confusing clothing choices with terrorism.

Sarah Palin is a self-promoting political hack. One would expect this lapse in logic from her.

Bill -- you're a computer programmer according to your Blogger profile data. One would hope that your logical thinking skills would be a bit better than Sarah Palin's. One can only hope that something else has blinded you to this lapse -- perhaps emotion or ideology?

Bill - regarding sartorial choice as an indicator for potential terrorists, your comments don't make sense because they are off-topic.

I would politely suggest that you're being blinded by emotion or political ideology.

The military security briefings that tell folks to not stand out as American and blend in while traveling overseas are defensive self-preservation tactics based on history of American citizens being targeted in nightclubs and other public venues.

That connection of terrorism with sartorial choice has nothing to do with the issues surrounding "Muslim garb" that Mr. Williams raised -- namely does Muslim clothing put anyone at an increased risk of Islamic terrorist attack?

The recent Muslim terrorist attacks did not involve anyone dressing in "Muslim garb" and did involve people dressed in clothing customary to Europe and North America.

Here are three quotes from Mr. Williams about bigotry:

"Racism is a lazy man's substitute for using good judgment."

"Common sense becomes racism when skin color becomes a formula for figuring out who is a danger to me."

"But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

This suggests an inconsistence in how Mr. Williams applies ethics to situations where people might be prone to engage in stereotyping.

He has condemned it in the past when stereotyping has been applied to African Americans.

He has spoken in favor of it when applied to Muslims.

Perhaps NPR (a private non-profit corporation who does receive government funding along with private donor funding) was justified in this firing?

Sartorial choice (i.e. Garb) was exactly the topic... Terrorists have a profile.. homeland security has a profile.... garb's a big part of each profile.

When I try and dress unAmerican, I'm making a Sartorial choice I'm I miss the terrorists profile

(I had a friend in the 80s by the way with USAID and he and his two supervisors made the bad choice of having the Certified Internal Auditor cards with them..big CIA letters). When their Kuwait to Karachi plan got hijacked the GS15 and 14 got bullets to the head over those cards...the GS 13 managed to survive with a beating and cigarette burns on soft sensitive places).

So Sartorial choices and what you have in your wallet count a lot..no emotion about it... it's a very calculated thing...

Juan Williams just has the profiles a bit wrong... but he's not a bigot, and I suspect the real reason he was canned was for appearing on Fox.

The NPR CEO said there was a history here and time for Juan to go... so I say it's time to defund Fox and let them see if they can make it without Taxpayer subsidy.